Child Well-being and Economic Growth: A Cross Country Analysis

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between various indicators of child well-being and economic growth. It groups indicators of child well-being into four key dimensions, namely child health, child education, child nutrition, and child access to water and sanitation. The study uses panel data of 5-year averages for 184 developed and under-developing countries for the period 1960-2020. It employs the mediation/ moderation analysis to examine the conditional direct and indirect effects of our composite measures of child well-being on growth. For estimation, we use the seemingly unrelated regression method for unbalanced panel data as developed by Biorn (2004). Our results show that child health, nutrition and education have a positive impact on economic growth. However, the direct impact of child access to water and sanitation is negative which is conditional on the levels of child health. The findings of this study can help policymakers to understand the role of different aspects of child well-being in building a solid foundation for more equitable and sustainable economic growth in the future.